Apparatus for feeding wire-nail machines.



PATENTED APR. 18, 1905.

. G. JEWETT. APPARATUS FOR FEEDING WIRE NAIL MACHINES.

APPLICATION FILED 16.17, 1904.

2 SHEETSQSHEET' 1.

fade/d0]? No. 787,672. PATENTED APR. 18, 1905.

JEWETT. APPARATUS FOR FEEDING WIRE NAIL, MACHINES;

APPLICATION FILED AUG. 17, 1904. v

' 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

6-6/1 far UNITED STATES Patented April 18, 1905.

PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE J EVVETT, OF PITTSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TO AMERI- CAN STEEL & W'IRE COMPANY OF NEW JERSEY, OF WORCESTER, MAS- SACHUSETTS, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

APPARATUS FEEDING WIRE-NAIL MACHINES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 787,672, dated April 18, 1905.

Application filed August 17, 1904:. Serial No. 221,082.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, GEORGE J EWETT, a citizen of the United States, residing at Pittsbur'g, Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Apparatus for Feeding Wire-Nail Machines; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

The invention relates to apparatus for feeding wire to machines for making nails, screws, or other articles that are made out of wire. It is herein shown and described in connection with a nail-making machine of a wellknown form, though it may be used with any other form and with machines for making other articles than nails.

The particular objects in view are to enlarge the output ofthe machines and to reduce the amount of scrap and waste wire that unavoidably results from the use of the pres ent feedin devices.

As is we known, the wire is received from the mill in coils or bundles, and heretofore in feeding the wire to nail-machines the first end is placed in the dies by hand, and as this part, therefore, does not go through the straightening-rolls the length of wire from these rolls to the dies is useless for making nails. The last end is also useless, as after it passes the straightening-rolls it stops in the dies and has to be removed and thrown away. There is always, therefore, a piece at the beginning and end of everywire coil that is lost; and the principal object of this invention is to save this loss by connecting the coils to gether and employing the apparatus hereinafter described and claimed for taking the wire first from one bundle and then from the other, the feeding operation being thus made on a bracket 1), fastened to the end of the machine 0 in substantially the vertical plane of the entrance of the wire to the straightening-rolls d. The arm projects horizontally from the machine to and overhangs a plurality of reels or drums e, and its free end oarries a segment-shaped bracket j, which is positioned vertically, as shown in Fig. 1, and has a series of guide rollers 7c in its upper curved edge up and over which the wire passes from the coils that are carried by the drums, as will presently be explained. Any number of drums may be employed; but there is little if any advantage in using more than two. They are secured in fixed position equidistant from the pivot g of the arm a, and the length of the arm is so proportioned that the depending end 72, of the segmental bracket f comes centrally over the drums and in line or substantially in line with their axes.

The drums are each provided with flat removable disk-like covers '5 i, that are secured in place by nuts 3' 3' after the coils of bundles of wire have been placed on them, and the segmental bracket fis provided with a tubular wire guide Z, that extends down toward the surface of-the cover and curves outward to near its peripheral edge, the connection between the upper end of the guide and the lower end h of the bracket being made by a coupling m, permitting the guide to turn freely all the way around.

As shown in the drawings herein, the wire appears to have been wound on the drums; but in practice no rewinding of the wire is necessary, the ordinary. coils or bundles as they come from the mill being slipped loosely over the barrel of thedrums and prevented from pulling up by fastening down the covers i. When the coils of Wire are thus mounted on the drums, the last or rear endof the one on the first drum is joined by electric or other welding to the first or front end of the coil on the second drum. The first end of the coil on the first drum is then placed in the machine by hand in the usual way after leading it u through the tubular guide and over the rol ers in the bracket f, and the operation of the machine unwinds the wire from the first drum in the ordinary manner, the swiveled guide Zrevolving as the wire unwinds. When the end of the first coil is reached, there is no stoppage of the machine or other interruption to the feeding operation, but the arm a simply swings over to the other drum under the tension of the Wire,

and the unwinding operation proceeds from this reel exactly as it did from the first. While the coil is unwinding from the second drum, the first one is reloaded with a new coil, and the first end of this new coil is welded to the last end of the coil that is unwinding. In this way the unwinding operation and the operation of feeding the machine is continuous as long as desired.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is- 1. An apparatus for continuously feeding wire to a nail machine from a plurality of stationary coils or reels, said apparatus comprising an arm pivoted to the machine and extending to and overhanging the coils, and

adapted to be swung by the wire from one to another of said coils, said arm carrying a wire-guide at its free end.

2. An apparatus for continuously feeding wire to a nail machine from a plurality of stationary coils or reels, said apparatus consisting of an arm pivoted to the machine in substantially the vertical plane where the wire enters, and extending to and overhanging the coils and adapted to be swung by the Wire from one to another, and a guide for the wire swiveled upon the free end of the arm and adapted to follow the wire around the coil as it unwinds.

3. An apparatus for continuously feeding wire to a nail-machine from a plurality of stationary coils or reels, said apparatus consisting of an arm a, pivoted to the machine substantially in the vertical plane in which the wire enters, and extending to and overhanging the coils and adapted to swing from one to another, a bracket f carrying guiderollers 75 secured to the free end of the arm, and a tubular guide Z for the wire swiveled to the bracket and adapted to follow the wire around the coil as it unwinds.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of tWo witnesses.

GEO. J EWETT.

Witnesses S. J. GRAY, O. L. MILLER. 

